Nick PetrieRezensionen

I was pretty psyched to read this book, Petrie's first Peter Ash novel, after reading the blurbs, and plot synopsis. At page 100, I was getting impatient at not finding an interesting plot or characters. At page 200, I was very frustrated, as the time for this novel to improve was half over. At page 300, I was ready to stop and return this boring book to the sale pile.. To me, The Drifter had nothing but superficial characters with repetitive characteristics (such as white static), and no clear cut motivations or any sense of self-awareness. the pivotal plot point, the turning of Midden, seems absurd. or, at least, unrealistic.

I've had THE DRIFTER in my bookcase for a while. I put off reading it because I hadn't read a Nicholas Petrie book before and thought I wouldn't care for it. But I was pleasantly surprised for more than 100 pages.

This is the first book in a series about Peter Ash, a war veteran with PTSD who has been living in the mountains because he can't bear living indoors. But now he has come back to civilization to help the widow and two children of a good friend he served with in the Marines.

While clearing debris from under the widow's front porch, Ash finds a suitcase full of money. And there begin, first, the mystery of the money and, then, thrills and suspense as Ash discovers who wants the money, their big plan, and what they'll do to accomplish it.

Petrie does a fine job of setting up the story. He made me wonder why I hadn't read this a long time ago.

As the story progresses, though, it can be annoying that Ash seems to deliberately goad people while they have him at a disadvantage, e.g., when they have his hands tied behind his back. Also, near the end, I found the story dragging probably because of the way Petrie was portraying panic attacks. I have had panic attacks in the past and know that they cannot be managed; you cannot just power through them and become suddenly stronger as a result.

Since THE DRIFTER, Petrie has written other Peter Ash novels. So I wonder, what will Ash do with his life now.

Apparently compared (even by Lee Child) as the 'Next Reacher' it has a similar vibe but doesn't quite work as well.

Peter Ash is a marine vet, returned to the US with almost claustrophobia, the noise and bustle of modern living builds a pressure/noise until he has to leave for the peace and quiet. He's spent a year living in the wilderness in the hope that he can forget some of the trauma, but still isn't fully recovered when news eventually reaches him that one of his sergeants has committed suicide. This seems a bit unlike the man he used to know, and in any case he feels a sense of guilt, duty and responsibility, for not looking after the men who were in his care, so he musters the fortitude to travel to the widow and see if he can help. Living out of a truck, he finds that she could use his carpentry skills, so he's rebuilding her porch when he discovers a mildewed suitcase full of cash and plastic explosive. Now he has to find out what his friend has become involved with.

Giving a hero a mental illness is a bold choice that needs to handled carefully, and I don't think the author has quite achieved this. You can't just 'power through' such things when it's convenient, you can't have them sometimes able to to cope and only bring the sensations back when they can be managed. For those truly afflicted, there is no choice or willpower involved. Other than that the complex motivations and carefully clues and plotting seemed well contrived.

The Drifter is a U.S. Veteran. He is a very good soul who found himself with a horrible claustrophobic condition, as a result of war. There are other veterans in the book who also suffer from various conditions, as a result of the war. So as not to spoil the story with this review, it is a bit of a thriller at the end. Four stars were given to this book.

Loved the adventure. Straightaway I was engrossed by the Redwoods - we certainly don't have these in the UK! And as I always read any author Acknowledgements, very soon I'll get a copy of The Wild Trees by Richard Preston.

Peter Ash, an ex-Marine with PTSD has a way of coming to the aid of people in need of his skills. This time a nineteen year old pregnant girl steps out from the side of the road. She's running from her ex-cop abusive husband and Peter offers her a ride. There is no shortage of action and suspense in this new installment of the Peter Ash series. In the end to even the odds against him Ash is assisted by his reporter girlfriend June and good friend Lewis. An excellent fast paced story.

I enjoyed this fast-paced speculative fiction albeit was a bit macho at times. There was a lot of intrigue and mystery.

Usual "hero" in a somewhat different character. Quick read with gaps and jumps. More implausible than most of its type.

audio fiction (11.5+ hrs), book 7 in series - marine veteran w/PTSD (triggered by enclosed spaces) stops to help a stranded pregnant woman by the side of the road, unaware that the husband she was trying to run from is a murderous psychotic mastermind.

I think I've only ever read #2 from this series before, and I think I liked that one better (the villain in this one is so terrible it makes me uncomfortable), but this one is (also) plenty suspenseful, if that's what you like to read. No falling asleep while reading this book..

More like 3.5 stars...but Jack Reacher like? Not so much, maybe Reacher light? Which isn't to say it wasn't a good book, it was a very good book, I just don't like these character comparisons so much...comparisons not withstanding...great read with a good message. I look forward to picking up the rest.

Another writer and series I enjoy. The ending was kind of anticlimactic, although it was teased through out. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Big fan of this series, Peter Ash is right up there with John Corey, Jack Reacher and Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Need to pick up number 4 as I already have number 5 waiting in the wings…

Petrie’s Ash stories are always a great read, looking forward to the next one.

Love me some Peter Ash, love me some Viking culture, although unintended as one, this was a wonderful crossover for me. This book was never short on action, or emotion, and played out very well. Very, very enjoyable!

Another Peter Ash success, especially after the failure of the last Reacher book, I’m happy to have another series to fall back into. Just have to wait for the next one to come out…

Too much cursing.

The second book in the series, after The Drifter. You don't have to have read The Drifter to read this, but you definitely will at some point want to read it.
This time out Peter Ash, former Marine first runs foul of a California bear out in the wilderness, and then run into June, an investigative journalist being chased by a shadowy possibly government organization who wants the code her mother was working on, which will have a huge impact on how computer perform in the future.
I literally could not put this book down and finished it in a day.
A great book for summer.

It's hard to believe this is the authors first book. A decent story, well executed, with interesting believable characters, excellent story execution, and well written action. The only downside was it was easy to figure out who the bad guys were, and how they were tied together. I will definitely check out the next book.

Interesting point of view and voices of veterans wrapped up in a thriller.

The Breaker is an outstanding book on many levels. Nick Petrie has outdone himself, as well as Lee Child’s Reacher and Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X. Peter Ash is a wonderful character, supported by other excellent, well-developed characters. The action, as well as the emotional story, is superb. Please read them all!

Another great Peter Ash novel. This time he helps a pregnant young woman. The action seldom slows down. June and Lewis show up to help. Nick Petrie is an excellent author, and write females characters especially well. The dedication made me cry. Just wonderful.

OK book about victim of Afghanistan battles and recurrent white outs from the battle. Saves a friend of war family .

This was a pretty promising start for a new series. I thought it dragged a bit in places, but was still interesting enough to keep me going, and it seemed to get better as it went. The main character is somewhat reminiscent of Jack Reacher, although not really as smart or as tough, and a bit more serious. He also has a flaw that gets a little annoying at times (especially to him), a form of PTSD I believe, from his days as a Marine. He can't handle being indoors, and not just certain types of places. I thought it played too big a part in the story, but perhaps I'll get used to it as I read future books, which I intend to do. There were other characters that were interesting and helped relieve some of his seriousness. There was one 12 year old boy, the son of a dead friend from the marines, who was pretty interesting. But Peter Ash acquired a partner along the way that was more interesting than the others, and possibly more interesting than Peter himself. Hopefully, there will be more of him. I believe he may even "star" in a future book.

I do like that Peter Ash is the kind of guy that tries to help others, sometimes even after they try to hurt or kill him. He manages to see the good in others, and actually helps them to see the good in themselves. This may turn out to be a dominant personality trait for him - we'll see.

By the way, I actually listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Stephen Mendel. His narration is OK - easy to understand, but a bit dry at times although that may be on purpose, as it's usually for the Peter Ash dialog, which makes Peter seem very straight-laced which might be the way he is.

Pretty similar to the first book. An interesting story that kept me reading, but Peter's PTSD is still dominating him. His friend Louis is back, and is still more interesting than Peter to me.

It was a little hard to decide who were the good guys and bad guys in this one. Guess that's a good thing - keeps things interesting.

This is an excellent character study of a former Marine suffering from PTSD and struggling to exist back in the States. His loyalty to the men who served under him in Iraq and Afghanistan leads him to Milwaukee, WI, where he lends a hand to the widow of a fellow Marine who apparently committed suicide. Because he has developed severe claustrophobia following his war experiences, he sleeps in his pickup cab in wintertime Milwaukee, which was rather unbelievable to me. However, the rest of the story is fast-moving and I enjoyed it.